Wise Men Say
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one hundred and eleven: VALENTINES #6 Quinn is having a hard time dealing with the impending birth, and Puck steps in.


Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, and fifty cycle. Now here's cycle 6!

Valentine's Day is coming, of course I couldn't ignore it! So I picked ten couples (some with OC characters) and set them for a love fest! :D Then on Valentine's Day, a group story! (not that kind of group, minds out of the gutter!) *cough* Anyhoo...  
**Valentine for the Gleeks, 6 of 11: Puck & Quinn**

* * *

**"Wise men say"  
Puck/Quinn**

They were all watching Quinn like a time bomb, as the weeks passed and her due date approached. They all saw her belly grow rounder still… no one watched her more closely than Puck.

What he saw a lot of was her getting tired. During Glee practice, she'd taken to sitting back, watching the rest of them until she had to step in. Eventually, she'd end up sitting back against the wall and dozing off. They would leave her be, one of them waking her when the period was over.

This particular day, the due date, was just a couple of weeks away now. Once again, Quinn had taken to napping against the wall. When the period was done, they'd all started to head out. Puck watched them go, watched Mr. Schuester start to move to wake up Quinn. He stopped him, quietly signalling that he'd take care of it. Mr. Schuester nodded and left him to it.

The room was absolutely quiet. Puck slowly stepped to the back row, carefully sitting down in the next chair. He looked at her for a moment, looked back ahead.

"I know you're awake." He didn't look back, but he knew she hadn't moved yet. "I've seen you when you're really asleep, and this isn't it." She kept up the act still. He stayed quiet for a few more seconds. "When you sleep, your hands… you protect her," he looked back, to the belly which contained their daughter. "Bad dreams?"

Her hands slowly moved to rest as they would in sleep, fingers gently moving over her belly. He looked up, meeting her eyes, now open and staring back at him. She looked as though part of her wanted him to just leave her be… but the other part didn't want to be alone, especially if he already knew she'd been faking sleep.

"Okay…" Puck sighed and got up.

"Wait!" Quinn gasped, her hand shooting out to stop him. Puck turned to look at her. Her eyes were pleading. After a moment, he sat back down. Quinn looked back down at herself. "If I tell you this, can you be the good guy I know you can be down there somewhere? Can you keep it to yourself?"

"Sure," he promised, surprised that she was agreeing to open up, to him. She was quiet, bracing herself. "Look, whatever it is, I…"

"I'm scared…" she cut in… He blinked. He hadn't expected that.

"Scared about what?" he asked carefully. She was still looking down at herself.

"It's almost time," she continued her cryptic little pieces of speech.

"Yeah," he nodded, still not grasping what she was getting at. "Quinn…"

"It's not like I didn't know it was coming," she finally elaborated. "It just seemed so far away, I just…"

"It's going to be okay," he told her, not sure that anything else would work.

"Is it?" she looked at him. "The last nine months have been nothing but things not being okay, why would this be any different?" She looked down again.

Puck considered this. He'd been shut out for so long, since the day Finn had found out about the truth and Quinn had told him she was going to take care of things on her own… If he was going to say something and have her actually hear him, he needed to be careful. He needed to, as she said, get in touch with the good guy in him.

"Okay, so parts of it will probably still suck… big time." It actually got a chuckle out of her. It gave him courage. "But whatever happens, you know… we're all with you. We're all on your side…" he hesitated, looking back at her until she met his stare. "I'm on your side." Her eyes were wet with tears, a couple of them rolled down her cheeks, creating curved streaks when they met the small smile forming on her face.

"You are," she repeated. The smile didn't last long. It retreated, still not strong enough to fight off her worries. "I'm going to screw it up…"

"You're not…"

"How did I think I could do this?" she breathed, breaking apart.

"You can…" he continued, even if she wasn't listening to him.

"My father was right…" He shook his head, reaching to squeeze her hand, getting her to stop.

"No, he wasn't. Don't even think that," he shook his head. "You hear? You are not the girl he thinks you are. You're better than that, better than him. The Quinn Fabray I know, she's strong as hell. She's going to be okay. Maybe not at first, but she's going to be okay… You are," he nodded.

She was looking at him, completely listening, soaking in what he told her. When he was done, something in her felt a need for him to hold her. She moved up, and Puck saw her coming. She buried her head in his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.

Looking down at her, quietly resting in his arms, and he couldn't speak… though heaven knew there was plenty to be said in his mind. The song was one he could feel was everything he wanted, whether or not he knew it or knew how to say it to her.

"_Wise men say only fools rush in / But I can't help falling in love with you."_

He'd missed her. He'd never really had her as his own, but he missed her. Before that day, that one where their baby was conceived, she was almost a completely different person to him. But on the day, he swore he'd seen her for the first time, the real her. Sure, she was drunk… but it was her. She wasn't hiding, she wasn't trying to be anyone else. Not the cheerleader, just the girl…

"_Shall I stay would it be a sin / If I can't help falling in love with you."_

Ever since then, it was almost as though he was trying for her to let him see that again… the real girl. Whether he could or would admit it to himself, she had taken something in him and changed it.

"_Like a river flows / Surely to the sea / Darling, so it goes / Some things are meant to be."_

When he'd found out she was pregnant, knowing that no matter what Finn believed, the baby was in fact his, it was a lot to take in. In retrospect maybe he hadn't handled it too well, but still he'd meant what he'd said. He wanted to take care of them both. He wasn't going to be like his father.

"_Take my hand / Take my whole life too / For I can't help falling in love with you."_

Helping her with the bake sale, that moment in the home economics class… she'd looked at him, covered in flour and other ingredients, and he swore he'd seen it… the look she'd given him on that day… he thought he finally had her back, but then Finn had come in, and he'd had to leave.

"_Some things are meant to be."_

After that though, he'd tried like never before. He'd baked the 'baked' goods, raised the money he knew she needed. If Finn wasn't going to help, he'd have to. In the end she hadn't taken the money, and he'd given it to its rightful owner, but he'd gotten so much in return… he was finally reaching her.

"_Take my hand / Take my whole, my whole life too / For I can't help falling in love with you."_

So of course he'd blown it. He didn't know why he seemed to have that self-destruct button, why he just pressed it every time he was in such a good place. Now he'd fallen, and the blows had kept coming with the secret coming out.

But he hadn't given up. He couldn't. Quinn was absolutely and completely worth the fight to him.

"_For I can't help falling in love with you."_

THE END


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